PumpSelect

This section of the website is under construction and all texts are provisional.

Van ’t Hof, Sjon. 2000a. Pumpselect : program for pump selection and cost appraisal (English version). Amersfoort: HIPPO Foundation. Amersfoort. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26059961/Pumpselect english.xls.

Van ’t Hof, Sjon. 2000b. Affordable low-lift pumping for small-scale irrigation development : appropriate equipment selection. Amersfoort: HIPPO Foundation. http://www.scribd.com/doc/106805099/Affordable-Low-lift-Pumping-forSmall-scale-Irrigation-Development-Appropriate-Equipment-Selection.

Above is a screenshot of PumpSelect, the Excel application for pump selection (Van ’t Hof, Sjon. 2000a). A training manual on the selection of appropriate pumping equipment for small-scale irrigation (Van ’t Hof, Sjon. 2000b) provides the background information for using PumpSelect. Combined they provide the necessary tools for designing efficient motor pumps, assessing their efficiency, and evaluating the overall pumping costs. The emphasis is on mobile pump sets with relatively small diesel engines and mixed-flow pumps for discharges of 25 to 150 litres/second with static heads of 2 to 6 meters. At the time of writing PumpSelect had an initial database of about 100 pumps and 50 engines, mostly from Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Philippines, Turkey) and Europe, but also Australia (where imported mixed-flow pumps from China are very common).

For a simple discussion of the main pump types that could be used for low-lift irrigation, click here.

For the fun part of PumpSelect continue reading here. With a little effort it is possible to do a full technical and economic analysis for any crop and hydrological conditions imaginable and for any low-lift pumping equipment in the same way is was done by Arby & Van ‘t Hof (2000) for the Kirloskar TV-1/NW9ME, following the example of Perlack (1988).

Things become really exciting when you start combining different pumps of comparable size but of different origins with a range of engine options, e.g. an Indian pump with an engine from UK (say Lister-Petter) or a Chinese pump with an engine from Germany (say Hatz or Deutz). This is not as strange as it may seem. In fact, it is common practice in Australia, see http://www.dieselparts.com.au/hb-hw_mixed_flow.html or http://www.macquarrie.com.au/pumps/mixed-flow-pumps. In our view, the most interesting pump models are 4HBG35 through 8HBG35. Now that we are with our antipodes: has anybody in West Africa yet considered using the versatile and economical Bartlett Flexiflume (water application system) and Pumpline (layflat hose), see http://www.bartlett.net.au/flexiflume_pumpline.php.

Arby, Dramane, and Sjon Van ’t Hof. 2000. Evaluation d’une motopompe Kirloskar TV-1/NW9ME à Kakondji, Tombouctou, Mali. http://www.scribd.com/doc/77669616/Evaluation-d%E2%80%99une-motopompe-Kirloskar-TV-1-NW9ME-a-Kakondji-Tombouctou-Mali

Perlack, Robert D., Carl H. Petrich, and Samuel Schweitzer. 1988. A comparison of decentralized inigrids and dispersed diesels for irrigation pumping in Sahelian Africa. Natural Resources Forum 12, no. 3: 235-242. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1477-8947.1988.tb00823.x. (Copy available on request).